Rural vs Urban Ministry

We only get one first impression at anything. There is no going back to re-live or re-experience them. They fade over time and all of the experiences between the first one and the present form an entirely new impression. We lose that sense of wonder, fear, amazement, or intrigue. Instead you become comfortable, at ease, or maybe apathetic or annoyed.

Except when we get to experience something through the eyes of someone else.

I suppose we all still hoped that despite appearances, there had been true repentance, that Haggard really had owned his sin, taken responsibility, accepted the blame, and sincerely confessed his guilt.

But a recent blog post raises a huge question mark against that hope. In Suicide, Evangelicals, and Sorrow, Haggard used the recent suicide of another megachurch pastor’s son, Isaac Hunter, to continue his attempts at resurrecting his name, reputation, and ministry. His post really is an almost perfect example of how not to repent.

So why highlight it? First, because it will help us to spot these characteristics when dealing with others who have fallen into public sin and scandal. Sadly, there are predictable patterns to these things that we’d do well to acquaint ourselves with so that we are not duped. And second, because we can use it as a personal heart-check to examine how we respond to our own sin.

Whatever the use, it is clear that there is little consensus on what “calling” actually is. It seems to me that its use has devolved into one of those “Christianese” words that people use and trust that everyone understands. What makes things even more interesting is that the word is often used in our culture, even by unbelievers, to describe what a person feels like they were put on this earth to do. There is no “caller” even though they feel “called.”